JOHN REILLY: Social media campaign fights cyberbullying

Saturday

I see the headline and I dread the story: “California high school denies teen suicide victim reported bullying despite parent claims.”

I see the headline and I dread the story: “California high school denies teen suicide victim reported bullying despite parent claims.”

Teen. Suicide. Bullying? There is something about those words, when laced together, that create the strongest of emotions. You immediately think the story could be vile and appalling. You immediately realize that the promise of one life may have been lost to the cowardly acts of another. You immediately hope you will never see another one of these headlines or read another one of these stories.

But they keep coming.

The fact is that cyberbullying is increasing at an alarming rate, and we don’t know it’s happening. Well, most of us don’t anyway.

“We saw people being cyberbullied on Twitter and the negative effect that it had on them,” the girls told me in an email exchange. “We had two choices: We could either wait for someone else to step in or try to start something ourselves. We knew that we had to do something, so we decided to work together to start ‘Think Before You Type.’”

The girls have recognized that bullying in today’s world has changed. Words written on a Facebook page and photos uploaded to Twitter can not only last forever, but can be seen instantaneously by millions. According to new research, 30 percent of today’s youth have been victims of cyberbullying and almost half of those victims do not tell anyone in their off-screen lives about their abuse. So they have started their crusade to provide both a virtual-voice and a cyber-ear for the victims of online bullying.

“We use Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to post inspirational content and we use our blog to write posts about topics that we think are important and that we hope will inspire others,” the girls said. “And we use YouTube to post videos that we film every Sunday. We call them our dares, and they are created to challenge our supporters to have a positive impact on the lives of the people around them and better their own lives as well.”

We can only hope that their effort will serve to prevent stories like those of Audrie Pott. Pott was a beautiful 15-year-old high school student from Saratoga, Calif., about to enter the prime of her life. Until Sept. 3, 2012, Labor Day, when three of her friends allegedly sexually abused her after she reportedly passed out at an unsupervised teen party where alcohol was plentiful. The kids reportedly then thought it would be amusing, and perhaps cool, to share photos. On Sept. 10, 2012, eight days after the alleged assault, Audrie Pott hanged herself. Her friends were arrested on suspicion of sexual battery on April 11, 2013.

Technology has moved bullying into the shadows, though the stories are far too frequent. Some make the headlines, like the case of two football players from Steubenville, Ohio, who were convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl and captured the attack on their cellphones to share with their classmates. But the frightening part is that for every national story that grabs the headlines, there are hundreds and hundreds that do not.

Lauren and Victoria Coaxum are well aware of this. But contrary to the philosophy of online bullies, Lauren and Victoria have designed the “Think Before You Type” campaign with the purpose of using the Internet for good.

“In-person bullying has the chance to turn physical,” the girls said. “But cyberbullying can follow people everywhere. We want to inspire other young people to use the Internet as a tool for good. And when you do, you can make a difference.”

Here’s the thing. We cannot afford to read any more stories of teens being bullied over the Internet or otherwise.

So I beg of you, if you are a victim of online bullying, please don’t go that way. Turn this way. Turn toward the voices of Lauren and Victoria Coaxum. And come see the real power of the Internet.

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